A forty-plus year shaving veteran, but a rookie just now contemplating traditional wet shaving with a single open blade, puts down his thoughts and experiences.

Saturday, October 2, 2010

Shave of the Day - Art of Shaving

Lisa was out at the Mall of America the other day and stumbled upon the new Art of Shaving store there. She took a quick peek inside, just to have a look around, and was rewarded with a sample package containing pre-shave oil, shaving cream, and after-shave.

Well, I tried the pre-shave and shaving cream yesterday.

I found the overall results quite satisfying - I especially liked the cream. The pre-shave oil however, was pretty odd to me. It was very heavy and sticky, which made it surprisingly hard to apply to my face.

These days I shave post-shower and the oil instructions did not say whether to apply to wet or dry skin. I made no special effort to keep my face wet, but portions were still damp from my shower. These areas seemed to be the hardest places to apply the oil.

I then rubbed the shaving cream in a thin layer over my entire beard. I followed that with the brush, face-lathering to a very nice rich creamy lather which built very quickly.

Following the lathering, I did a quick with-the-grain pass with my early '60s Super Speed.

I then rinsed and relathered, using only the lather remaining in the brush. Again, I was able to build a nice creamy lather, although it was not quite as rich as the initial application.

Following that, I did my usual second pass against-the-grain, and only needed minimal touch-ups. All in all, a very nice satisfying near-BBS shave.

My initial reaction to the Art of Shaving products is that they are quite effective, though I can't say I care unduly for the fragrance. In fairness, I did not try the after-shave, so cannot comment on that.